Dec. 10, 2008
Your Baby Can Read
Posted in reading
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I've been watching a few late night infomercials lately. Here is the one I watched for a few minutes last night. http://www.yourbabycanread.com/ It's a fascinating infomercial and you can see that the babies are really reading. It is almost miraculous in a way. I found myself laughing and chuckling as they showed a 2.5yo reading a complicated sentence that included words like parallelogram & trapezoid. You'll see it if you watch the video on the above link. It gave me a major flashback to teaching my oldest son, Kevin at a young age. I have a video of him at 1.5 drawing pictures on a paper at the kitchen table and saying and pointing to shapes I drew. "What's this?" I point to a shape. "Issa Hexagon" he says correctly. I really need to figure out how to copy that tape to computer so that I could share it here. Until I do all I can say is its a really cute video and one of the few things I'm glad I caught on tape. I also have him reading his favorite book, Dr. Seuss The Ear Book. Everyone thought he had it memorized but I really think he was reading this at 18 months! What I see from the above program, is that someone had the sense to try to bottle up and sell what I did naturally with Kevin. They start early relating words with actions and pictures to the children so that when they finally learn the concept of phonics they already have a great repertoire of sight words. Probably more than your average 2nd grader. Now their methods were not like mine. I didn't use flash cards and sit my 6 month old in front of videos. I just used his natural curiosity. The whole story is written over on Gather.com at In the Beginning... I wish I had the energy with all my children that I did with Kevin. They would all be budding geniuses. Not that they all aren't in their own way but they have all learned to read in different ways. No two children of mine have learned to read exactly the same way. Adam, second oldest was taught all his phonics, showed no interest in learning to read, was happy lining his cars up in neat organized rows and drawing intricate drawings on paper. But reading? It wasn't until a few days after his 6th birthday that he picked up a magazine at the doctor's office and saw his name in an article. Suddenly this little boy was interested in reading. He wanted to know why this magazine was about him! And he was reading. Stephanie, third in line attended a christian preschool from 2.5 yo to 5 years. I worked upstairs in another office and then eventually ended up as the administrative assistant for the preschool. They used the Abeka program so Stephanie was taught to read in K4 and was reading fluently by 5yo. Then along came Eric. I ended up working full time when he was about 8 months old and so he was raised by his dad and his elder brothers. He was exposed to books, loved to draw and be read to and thoroughly enjoy life (he is my enthusiastic child). Taught himself to read using Calvin and Hobbes Comics at age 5 1/2 cause he was tired of asking someone to read it to him. He just sat down and started puzzling it out himself. Now there is only Cassie left to learn to read. She is 6. Last year I taught at a small private school and had her in my class. We covered all the phonics readiness that she needed but she just doesn't care to put it into practice. She is happy and calmly says "I can't read that" as she patiently explains to her bigger brother why she can't tell him the name of the cartoon she is watching if it's a new one. I'm sure programs like Your Baby Can Read are great, but they can be costly too. All of my children learned to read in their own unique way. I wouldn't have such a cool story to share that celebrates this if I had used a canned curriculum. Guess this is further proof of my unschooliness! |
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